Sigh. He won't consider that there have been terrorists who crossed the borderwhile posing as illegal aliens, which, come to think of it, they are. But, if that's what he thinks, how come he hasn't criticized the Obama administration for letting it get out of hand? Oh, right, he'll make separations when he thinks it suits him. Only a Republican-led government is suited for scapegoating in his mind.

Tsk tsk tsk. So Christianity/Judaism is fanaticism, but Islamofascism never is, nor its motivations for al Qaeda, Hamas, and Boko Haram. This isn't the first time Conway's signaled hostility to Israel (and maybe the USA?). A few years ago, he wrote these disgusting tweets as well. That's why he's such a leading example on a big list of writers whose art you'd have to separate from the artist, or take with a grain of salt. And he actually read and wrote the creations of descendants of Israel, and worked alongside plenty of them decades before! We can only wonder if today, he's the kind of man who's happy to just take the money and run. Yet simultaneously, he doesn't sound like a very happy man.

Just when you thought Brevoort couldn't stoop deep enough into the abyss, he does again. It began with somepostswherehe claims Batman killing the Joker would be wrong, even if it's to save an innocent life (strange, wasn't Daredevil shown killing a handful of villains in self-defense, possibly in Frank Miller's stories?), and veers close to acting like Batman is a real person. Now, he's gone overboard again with another stupefying argument against killing murderous offenders that basically says you're also a terrorist if you terminate them. He begins with:

I think this has as much if not more to so sub-textually with the audience wanting to feel good about itself.

I think Brevoort likes to feel good about himself. No wonder he's part and parcel of the crew backing the erasure of the Spider-marriage, and the awful treatment of Mary Jane Watson. And that's just one example of many embarrassments he's been involved with for over a decade.

it started a little bit in the 80s, but especially ever since 9/11, there’s been an underlying narrative throughout popular fiction that amounts to, “In order to fight terrorists, the only thing that can be done is to become a terrorist yourself.” And that seems to me to be a product of a society that knows that things like the abuses at Guantanamo Bay are wrong, but doesn’t actually want to change the behavior or demand accountability. In a world where even Superman can’t find a way other than to become a terrorist, it’s more all right for ordinary people to feel the same way.

What a groaner. All he's doing is blurring the differences between terrorists and counter-terror specialists, for example. You could easily argue he's insulting liberals along with conservatives too. How does he know the entire public agrees with his view of anything going on at Guantanamo, if it really did take place?

And what narrative has there really been in popular fiction that he claims? Not in the fictional stories he's been in charge of, that's for sure, and certainly not since 9-11. They took good care to ensure the narrative would be one of defeatism, and a dearth of creativity. That's why the Marvel Knights take on Captain America was truly awful.

I think grappling with hard moral choices, and the question of where heroism stops, at what point you become a villain, is definitely interesting–it’s certainly been the backbone of the storyline in AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS for months. But I don’t think the example that was given fulfills that quandary. That isn’t a hard choice at all, not for a super hero–if it is, then they’re a piss-poor super hero, and will be dead on in prison soon anyway. No, it’s a false choice that we want to see go the other way because we’ve become societally convinced that doing so makes somebody a “badass” and worthy of emulation. And because, on a visceral level, we want to see the bad guy get theirs. But that isn’t justice, that’s vengeance.

Says who it's not justice? Only a lazy bum like Brevoort. He's long stopped being relevant. Besides, didn't they once try to make various superheroes into "badasses" over past decades? Wolverine's one of those too. But then, that could explain why they got rid of Logan in their recent publicity stunts, replete with a few tie-in specials to milk more money off of the gullible.

I have no doubt there's plenty of terrible messages to be found in the recent Avengers storylines. It's not all that new though. Marvel's surrendered the Earth's Mightiest Heroes to the worst of writers since 2002.

Thank goodness we didn't have anti-warrists like Brevoort around during WW1 and WW2. But tragically, we do have men like him around today, and they do not help one bit.

Nebraska was the first state to pass the 20 week abortion ban.WHY 20 WEEKS? SIMPLE:In Roe v Wade, Brennan's extra-judicial research at The Mayo Clinic led him to conclude that viability was around 27 weeks - which was true at the time. It is no longer true. Now, a fetus is routinely viable outside the womb at 20 weeks.Therefore - if the "pro-choice" crowd was intellectually honest - and had a scintilla of moral honesty, then they would demand that a limit of 20 weeks be enforced nationally.A reduction in the number of weeks is ENTIRELY consistent with the substance of Brennan's Roe v Wade decision.Opposition to it has no legs to stand on.The 20-week ban is gaining momentum, nationally - and become an issue for the GOP candidates for the presidential nomination.Good:I think this could be a big issue that could get the GOP many many new voters to support their presidential candidate: 71% of Americans favor more limits or a total ban. (YES: Gallup shows this number at 71%!)I have long advocated this step - first blogging it in 2005:

If the SCOTUS is intellectually honest - and morally consistent - then they will marginally rollback the Roe v. Wade cut-off date to the 22rd week - (perhaps further, IF AND ONLY IF medical science can establish that viability begins earlier).

I BLOGGED IT AGAIN IN 2009, AND IN 2012.I EVEN SUGGESTED - BASED ON 2009 MEDICAL CARE THAT IT COULD BE LOWERED TO 18 WEEKS.HERE'S A PICTURE OF AN 18 WEEK OLD FETUS:

LIBERALS THINK IT'S OKAY TO KILL THAT HUMAN BEING - (see photo above).I THINK NOT.I THINK MOST AMERICANS AGREE.LET'S MAKE IT A NATIONAL ISSUE.AS A SOCIAL ISSUE - A MORAL AND CULTURAL ISSUE - IT'S WAY MORE IMPORTANT THAT GAY MARRIAGE.

[ADDENDUM: Most European nations ban abortion after 12-14 weeks. YES: Europe - which liberals regularly hold up as being more enlightened and progressive than us backward neanderthals in America - has stricter more limited abortion laws than we do.]

Friday, April 17, 2015

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator reviewed Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide, by Eric Bogosian, which is going to press on April 24, the official date of the memorial.

With a simple wave of a hand, the High Court of Justice on Wednesday propped up a law with one of the most powerful weapons yet produced to fight boycotts against Israel (at least from within the country) while also narrowly rejecting exempting boycotters who target only the West Bank or “post-1967 Israel” from the law.

The implications of the ruling for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign and counter-campaign globally could be massive.

What’s it all about? The law at stake empowered the finance minister to fine or remove tax breaks from Israeli NGOs that called for boycotts of parts of Israel, as well as empowering individuals to sue those NGOs for civil damages they claimed were caused by such boycotts.

The court did strike a provision that would have allowed punitive damages against those NGOs, somewhat reducing the biggest threat they faced for calling for boycotts, but leaving the overall threat in place.

The five fingers and the hand signify the five justices who voted 5-4 to view boycotts targeted only at the West Bank settlements as no different under the law than boycotts of all of Israel or “post-1948 Israel.”

All traitors who operate to delegitmize Israel would do us all a service by leaving the country, since they clearly don't want to live here. This is a very good law to send a message that if anti-Israelists keep up their badness, they should pay for it out of their own pocket and not abuse our tax shekels.

In a speech at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the West has not learned the lesson of the Holocaust.

Comparing Nazi Germany with Iran, Netanyahu said, "Just as the Nazis aspired to crush civilization and to establish a 'master race' to replace it in controlling the world while annihilating the Jewish people, so too does Iran strive to gain control over the region, from which it would spread further, with the explicit intent of obliterating the Jewish state."

The prime minister went on to say, "The determination and lessons that were acquired in blood seventy years ago are now dissipating, and the darkness and fog of denying reality are taking their place. The bad deal that is being made with Iran demonstrates that the historic lesson has not been internalized. The West is yielding in the face of Iran's aggressive actions. Instead of demanding a significant dismantling of the nuclear program in Iran -- a country that clearly states its plans to exterminate 6 million Jews here and elsewhere, to eradicate many countries and many regimes -- the superpowers back down. They are leaving Iran with its nuclear capabilities, and even allowing it to expand them later on, regardless of Iran's actions in the Middle East and around the world.

"As the civilized world is lulled into slumber on a bed of illusions, the rulers of Iran continue to encourage subversion and terrorism, and disseminate destruction and death. The superpowers turn a deaf ear to the crowds in Iran shouting: 'Death to America; Death to Israel.' They turn a blind eye to the scenes of execution of those who oppose the regime and the members of minority populations. And they hold their peace in the face of the massive arming of terrorist organizations. At the most, they make a halfhearted statement for the record.

"The bubble of this illusion is going to burst. Democratic governments made a critical mistake before World War II, and we are convinced -- and I must say that many of our neighbors are too -- that they are making a grave mistake now too. It is possible that this partnership with many of our neighbors, the partnership in identifying threats, is the foundation for the partnership in forging a better, safer and more peaceful future in our region. Meanwhile, we will not flinch. We will continue to insist on the truth, and we will do everything we can to open the eyes that have closed. I do not want to mislead anyone. We have tests ahead of us. We are in the midst of a great battle against the languor, the weakness, the denial of reality -- we will stand in full force."

Even the arrangement the GOP made in Congress may not suffice to oppose a faustian pact with Iran. A lot more must be done to make clear only dismantling Iran's nuclear arsenal and the dictatorship will suffice.

CBR's Robot 6 section pointed to a Time article about how anti-ISIS fighters in Iraq are taking up the Punisher's symbol just as Chris Kyle and his squad were inspired to. This is the most significant mention CBR's made of details involving American Sniper so far, and I wonder if it's because these are locals - possibly the kind of people who might be described as "moderate Muslims" - who're trying out the skull symbols, and not just Kyle's team themselves. But, since this has some interesting notes to cite, let's see what they bring up. For example, at the beginning, they say:

The creator of The Punisher says he is 'flabbergasted' by the appropriation of his image by Iraqi fighters

So Gerry Conway's not happy even Iraqis took a liking to the skull symbol? We'll get to more on that soon, but now, here's something I want to take issue with:

In his regular life the Punisher is Frank Castle, a veteran of the Vietnam War whose family was killed in the crossfire of a mob dispute. Angry that the police fail to bring his family’s killers to justice, Castle takes the law into his own hands as the Punisher, using torture, murder and kidnapping in his anti-crime crusade. For the Punisher the ends justify the means in fighting evil.

“That is paralleling the Shi’ite militia,” says Aymenn al-Tamimi, a researcher at the Philadelphia-based think tank Middle East Forum.

While I haven't read every Punisher story from the better days till the end of the last century, I think they're exaggerating the torture and kidnapping parts a bit. And they certainly are obfuscating what he does to the villains he terminates, predictably calling it murder rather than execution of filth. Let's remember that many of the criminals Frank targeted were murderous themselves, and bringing in a MEF member with a statement to justify Time's standings (and Conway's too, I figure), is pretty low. No mention of any of the innocent lives Frank may have saved in his career either, I see.

As a poorly-guided vigilante the Punisher is a well-suited icon for the Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militia that have been accused of looting towns, burning homes and murder in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).

Wait a minute. Are they saying Frank Castle appeals to terrorists?!? Well now isn't that stooping very deep. It figures an awful magazine like Time would fudge everything up. Something overlooked here is - did the militias actually get the idea from the Punisher proper? I'd say the chances of that are minimal at best. But I'll admit, they may have gotten the idea from Kyle's troops.

“I think they forget the American association and just think, ‘oh, look how cool we are with these death skulls’,” says Tamimi. He points out that Iraqis appropriate “American symbols, despite of course the rampant anti-Americanism particularly with the Shi’ite militias. It’s an interesting discord.”

Well sadly, skulls can be seen as evil symbols despite the Punisher's belonging to somebody who's otherwise a good guy. If the local movements they cite did draw their symbols from the Punisher's and/or what Kyle's team used, it was probably by coincidence, not actually knowing it even came from an American comic book character's outfit.

Engel wrote that he and his producer dug into the story more and discovered that the kidnappers who took Engel and his news team captive for five days in 2012 lied to them and said they were tied to Syrian President Bashar al Assad. They are now believed to be part of a Sunni militant group, not affiliated with Shiite forces loyal to Assad.While NBC presents its clarification as re-reporting the story, the Times reports that NBC knew about these possible discrepancies both during and after Engel's captivity and still chose to put him on the air and blame the Shiite forces.

HOW DID THE NYTIMES "UNCOVER" THIS INFORMATION?

I SUSPECT IT CAME FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.

I SUSPECT THAT THE WHITE HOUSE WAS VERY UNHAPPY WITH ENGELS REPORTING FROM THE REGION WHICH HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL OF OBAMA.

AND I SUSPECT THEY DECIDED TO GO AFTER HIM - TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THEIR LACKEY'S IN THE MASS MEDIA: DON'T STRAY.

AFTER ALL... SENATOR MENENDEZ WENT OFF THE PLANTATION AND LOOK WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO HIM...

BOTTOM-LINE:

THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR IS BETWEEN EVIL SCUM AND EVIL SHIT.

IT MATTERS NOT WHICH SIDE ABDUCTED ENGEL.

WHAT MATTERS TO DICTATORIAL COLLECTIVISTS LIKE OBAMA AND HIS COMRADES IS KEEPING PEOPLE IN LINE.

The unprotected material can cause burns and permanent injuries to those who have been in contact with it for just minutes or hours. 'Highly radioactive'Luis Felipe Puente, head of Mexico's civil protection agency, urged whoever finds the source to keep it at a distance and call for help. The robbery was reported by the company Garantia Radiografica e Ingenieria which said that the material had been stolen on Monday.

IT WOULD MAKE SENSE FOR ISIS TO STEAL RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS IN MEXICO AND THEN TRY TO SMUGGLE A DIRTY BOMB INTO THE USA... MAYBE ATTACKING DALLAS OR HOUSTON...

The treasurer of Brazil's ruling party, Joao Vaccari, has been arrested in connection with a massive corruption scandal at oil giant, Petrobras. Mr Vaccari is charged over an alleged scheme in which the party received dirty money from inflated deals between oil executives and construction firms. He has temporarily stepped down, but he and the party deny the charges.

He is the closest ally of President Dilma Rousseff to have been arrested in the broadening scandal. The arrest places further pressure on the president, who has faced street protests, impeachment calls and plummeting opinion ratings since her re-election four months ago.

Ms Rousseff served as the head of Petrobras for much of the period when the corruption took place, but she has not been implicated in the scandal. More than 40 politicians, including the heads of both houses of congress, are being investigated over the affair.

President Rousseff has faced calls for her impeachment, just months after winning an election

Prosecutors say Mr Vaccari served as the Workers' Party's liaison in a scheme where oil officials colluded with construction firms to artificially inflate billions of dollars worth of contracts.

According to oil officials who are testifying for the prosecution, some of the cash skimmed from the deals was diverted to the party and its allies.

The party says it remains sure of Mr Vaccari's innocence, "not only because of his conduct, but because in a democratic state everyone has the fundamental right to be considered innocent until proven guilty". Mr Vaccari was charged last month, becoming one of the most powerful political figures to have been named in the scandal.

Petrobras is Brazil's largest company and is seen as a pillar of the economy

His arrest was reportedly ordered because of concerns that he may influence the investigation or flee the country. "Anyone responsible for such severe crimes, including using the position of treasurer of a political party to raise criminal funds and corrupt the political system, is a risk to public order," a judge handling the case, Sergio Moro, said in a court order. Police arrested the treasurer in Sao Paulo as he was going for a morning walk.

OBAMA AND HIS COMRADES AND CRONIES DID WORSE WITH THE STIMULUS AND THE SO-CALLED GREEN ECONOMY SUBSIDIES.

China's economic growth slowed further in the three months to March this year, expanding 7% compared to a year earlier, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis in 2009. The rate was lower than the 7.3% posted for the three months to December. Last year, China's economy, which is the world's second largest, grew at its slowest pace since 1990. It expanded by 7.4% in 2014, missing its annual growth target of 7.5% for the first time in 15 years....

..."Still, it represents a slowdown from the previous read of 7.3%," Nicholas Teo from CMC Markets told the BBC, "and is one of the weakest numbers reported in quite a few years." In the first three months of 2009, amid the financial crisis, China's economy expanded 6.6% from a year earlier. China also released industrial production (IP) figures on Wednesday which fell to 5.9% month-on-month in March, down from forecasts for an expansion of 6.9% and the lowest since 2008.

Analysts said these figures were more glaring than the growth data. Mr Teo described the latest IP numbers as "unfavourable".

CHINA MAY VERY WELL BE HEADING TO A SLUMP AT LEAST AS BAD AS THE ONE AFTER THE GLOBAL CRASH - AND THAT COULD LEAD TO THE CHINESE BUBBLE BURSTING...

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The US military command that scans North America's skies for enemy missiles and aircraft plans to move its communications gear to a Cold War-era mountain bunker, officers said Tuesday. The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command's sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said.

The New York branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve, wary that a natural disaster or other eventuality [UMPH ADDED] could shut down its market operations as it approaches an interest rate hike, has added staff and bulked up its satellite office in Chicago.

Some market technicians have transferred from New York and others were hired at the office housed in the Chicago Fed, according to several people familiar with the build-out that began about two years ago, after Hurricane Sandy struck Manhattan. Officials believe the Chicago staffers can now handle all of the market operations that are done daily out of the New York Fed, which is the U.S. central bank's main conduit to Wall Street....

... Two of the sources, which included market participants and Fed officials and who spoke under condition of anonymity, said the Chicago office was partly protection against a possible cyber attack against the New York Fed. In February, Fed Chair Janet Yellen told a congressional panel the central bank is addressing "ever-escalating (cyber) threats to our operations."

SOMETHING IS UP....

THE TIMING IS TOO PROXIMATE TO THE PENTAGON'S MOVE AND TO GERMANY REACTIVATING TANKS THAT HAVE BEEN IN MOTHBALLS FOR DECADES....

MAYBE THEY THINK - AFTER A JOINT SAUDI-ISRAELI PREEMPTIVE ATTACK ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR SITES - IRAN WILL RETALIATE WITH AN EMP ATTACK ON NYC?

Russia announced Monday that it will sell Iran advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles. The decision, which ends an embargo dating back to 2010, shows that President Barack Obama is rapidly losing control of the international consensus on Iran.

It also sets Israel a deadline to attack Iran–since Israel has treated the S-300 system as a “red line,” and has attacked Syria several times recently to prevent advanced Russian air defense and anti-ship missile systems from becoming operational.

Sooner or later, no matter what the costs, Israel is going to have to attack Iran to stop their nuclear development, because it will doom Israel and the rest of the world. Putin's just proven Russia is still a serious menace to Israel and the rest of the globe by selling deadly weapons to such an evil country as Iran.

A photo of a family standing around and their child sitting on our 9/11 Memorial in Haverstraw Bay Park has been brought to my attention (the child in the striped shirt at the back of this photo).

The ethnic or religious makeup of the family in question is not what matters here. What matters, and what I would ask everyone to focus on, is the desecration of this sacred site. I have reached out to Sheriff Falco and our Environmental Resources/Parks Coordinator to discuss ways to prevent this sort of behavior in the future through signage and patrols, and urge all parents to discuss with their children the importance of respecting site such as this one.

I think there's two monument sections, and another child in black outfit is sitting on the other one. This is an absolute embarrassment, and it's not the first time an atrocity like this has happened. Two years ago, some Haredis swam around in an Israeli memorial fountain dedicated to the memory of a group of soldiers who'd died in a helicopter accident en route to Lebanon, upsetting the mother of one of the deceased.

The worst part is, these insular Haredis are the kind of people who refuse to help build the country or serve in the army, let alone anything else that might help prevent innocent lives from being lost. Now, even in America, as we see, there's Haredi kooks out there who probably don't even understand English text who're acting disrespectful of memorials to people who lost their lives in violent crimes by violent men whose ideology targets mainly Jews. They're also drawing attention away from the more pressing issues with their degrading acts. Even the Haredi-run Yeshiva World site slammed this staggeringly brainless show of contempt. If the Haredis who'd been at the park are smart, they'll apologize and make sure they teach their children why it's wrong to sit around on memorial structures dedicated to innocent people who were attacked by monsters whose Koran condones anti-semitism.

I want to thank Mr. Day for bringing this topic to everybody's attention.

Iran’s deplorable record on women’s rights did not stop the Islamic Republic from winning a seat on UN Women, a United Nations body that was formed in 2010 to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality.

“In Iran, women are legally barred from holding some government positions, there are no laws against domestic violence, and adultery is punishable by stoning, making it wholly inappropriate that Iran assume a leadership role on women’s rights and welfare at the U.N,”said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, in criticizing the decision to make Iran a member of the women’s rights body.

Power added that she was “extremely disappointed” in the UN group’s decision. Iran’s three-year term as a UN Women Governing Board member begins January 1, 2016.

If she's really let down, why does she even continue to be a UN member? There's already a few other Islamic countries on that board already, so like much of the rest of the UN, it's nothing more than a joke. Nobody who really believes in human rights should be associating themselves with such an awful movement.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Less than four months after Islamic fanatics stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and butchered 12, while accepting the George Polk career award Friday, left-wing cartoonist Garry Trudeau blasted the dead with the claim that they had “wandered into the realm of hate speech.” He also added that “free speech… becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”

Without irony, after punching 12 of his dead colleagues, the creator of “Doonesbury” said that a cartoonist’s job is to “punch up” not down.

What Trudeau fails or chooses not to understand is that rebellion is not hate speech. Charlie Hebdo was not gratuitously mocking Mohammed or Jesus Christ or the Pope. For the cause of free speech, Charlie Hebdo was pushing back against what it rightly saw as creeping fascism, especially Islamic fascism, in the most blatant and in-your-face way possible.

Trudeau has really scraped the barrel's bottom this time. I used to read Doonesbury years ago, but largely lost interest around 1995, and after learning what a screwball Trudeau's become, it's harder and harder to get interested in his long-running strip again. He must wear an ear-covering helmet more impenetrable than B.D's football helmet. Making matters worse, one of the New York Times' leading staffers is defending Trudeau's journey off the deep end. His own comic strip's long lost any relevance thanks to his plummet. I think it's about time he retire it for good. It probably didn't even have much cultural value in the first place.